


A Lesson in Tact

by sugxrwfflez



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Minor Asahina Aoi/Ogami Sakura, Not Beta Read, One-Sided Fukawa Toko/Togami Byakuya, Tags Are Hard, established relationships - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-01-26 14:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21375409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugxrwfflez/pseuds/sugxrwfflez
Summary: Byakuya Togami was known for being particularly rude and he didn't really care about hurting other people's feelings. At least he felt that way when he wasn't laying on the ground with a concussion and a knife through his side.
Relationships: Asahina Aoi/Ogami Sakura, Naegi Makoto/Togami Byakuya
Comments: 7
Kudos: 173





	1. Chapter 1

Byakuya was sitting in the library reading, like usual. It wasn’t really a secret that he didn’t really care for anybody in the group, well.. Maybe not everyone. Makoto was tolerable, but always out with Kyoko doing god knows what that he could never actually catch him for a minute. Not that he cared at the moment, listening to his obnoxious optimism was draining and the day had been a nightmare from start to finish. Makoto told the group that he apparently saw Sakura fighting Monokuma and it ended with the girl confessing that she was the traitor among them. Then Asahina had the nerve to slap him in the face for expressing that it was absurd to trust her? After they had disassembled from the gym he decided he could try sitting in here to hopefully rid himself of the dreadful headache the situation had caused. 

It wasn’t until he was lying on the ground, vision blurring from smacking his head off something and the fact that his glasses had snapped in half from the force, that he considered maybe he should have been a little bit more tactful. He obviously couldn’t see who it was that shoved him, and they clearly had the sense to keep silent, but he could tell by their general figure that it was a female. Probably Toko he decided. She’s never exactly been subtle about her stalking and she was sort of known for killing the guys she was attracted to. At least that’s what he would have said five minutes ago when he felt something pierce through his side. 

He was almost grateful they shoved him from behind because it made it easier to play dead. He bit his tongue and his eyes slammed shut as pain flooded through his head and made it nearly impossible to focus on anything else. He pulled it off though. After a few seconds of initial squirming he went totally limp and silently prayed that whoever attacked him was stupid enough to think that would be enough to kill him. Either they were bitter enough to let him bleed out or they were indeed a moron because it worked, and they left. Their footsteps bangining loudly against the wooden floors as they sprinted out the back entrance. 

It took a minute of thinking before he actually made any attempt to get up. At the moment he didn’t really care who it was that attacked him, he just knew he needed to find someone and that it needed to be soon. He gripped onto something, he wasn’t entirely sure what, and pulled himself up on his feet with a groan before stumbling out of the Library doors and into the hall.

At one point he ended up tripping on one of his feet and falling against the wall, and if it weren’t for the bars on the side to grab, he likely would have fallen down the stairs. Each step up those stairs was absolute torture, and if his attacker didn’t want him dead and simply wanted to watch him suffer, they definitely got what they were looking for. But he was damned if he was going to let himself bleed out on the ground without giving it his best effort.

He stumbled up the stairs and threw himself against the nearest door and gave it a weak knock, leaning against part of it for support. That might not have been the best decision on his part though because when that door opened he fell face first and he was too tired to think to raise his arms to stop from hitting his head off the floor. 

“Byakuya, Jesus!” Someone yelled his name out, it sounded like a girl. He just hoped it wasn’t the person who left him in this predicament in the first place. Turns out it was actually Kyoko and she was kneeling down to see what was wrong with him. He must have looked a lot worse than he realized because she was running away to get the others before he had a chance to explain why he’d woken her. Then he heard more voices but his head throbbed and god he was so tired…

“Hey Byakuya..everything is gonna be ok!” 

“Which one of you guys attacked my beloved!”

“Don’t say that! We all know it was you, your the one who kills her crushes after all.” 

Byakuya tried to tell them that he was blacking out but he couldn’t even bring himself to move. He mumbled something but it was hardly audible. Nonetheless Kyoko seemed to get the idea. “Guys! We can worry about this later. I got you because I need Hagakure’s or Sakura’s help getting him to the nurse’s office. He’s not very heavy, but he’s tall and I won’t be able to get him there myself.” 

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll carry him.” Everybody moved out of Sakura’s way as she walked toward the boy who lay crumpled up on his side, conscious but not aware. She lifted him up gently, before walking down the stairs towards the nurse’s office at a quick pace, the rest of the group following behind her. 

“I wonder where he was when this happened. I thought everybody was in their dorm rooms.” Asahina said quietly, rubbing her eyes like she’d just woken up.

“We should definitely investigate this even though he isn’t dead...someone tried to kill him and we need to know who.” Makoto said, crossing his arms as he watched Kyoko and Sakura walk into the nurse’s office with Byakuya totally limp in her arms.


	2. Chapter 2

After a few minutes the doors opened and Kyoko emerged missing her infamous jacket and having rubber gloves over her hands instead of the usual ones, you still couldn’t see anything though because they were black. “I’m no doctor but I managed to stitch his wound up and bandage it so he should be ok for now. He had a stab wound on his lower abdomen but it looks like whoever attacked him did so from behind based on the entrance wound.”

“What about his glasses? They were gone when we found him right or am I just imaginin’ that?” Hagakure looked confused, which honestly was nothing new.

“Oh right, yes. When I first opened my door I didn’t realize it because he fell almost immediately but there is in fact a large gash on the side of his temple. He definitely hit his head off of something so the likelihood of him having a concussion on top of everything is relatively high.” 

“I can’t believe one of you monsters would do something like this to master. I should slice the culprit to pieces when I find them!” Genecide Jill shouted at the top of her lungs. 

“No! You can’t! We can’t let the killing game start again.” Makoto said trying to calm her down. 

“I vote to not let her near Byakuya for the foreseeable future..” Sakura said walking out of the room behind Kyoko.

“Honestly I agree with that. In fact, I think it’s very important that we don’t leave him alone until we find out who was responsible for this. He’s in a very vulnerable position right now and it wouldn’t be hard for the person who did this to come in here and finish the job.” Kyoko crossed her arms looking at them all. 

“But who should be the one to stay here if we don’t know who’s responsible?” Asahina scratched the back of her head curiously.

“And isn’t it technically against the rules to sleep outside of the dorm rooms? What if Monokuma punishes him because he’s sleeping in the nurse's office?” Makoto hadn’t actually thought about that in the panic to get him down here and now he was honestly kind of worried. 

“Don’t worry about that Makoto, I’m not that cruel.” The voice they were all too familiar with came from around the corner to greet them all. 

“Jury’s out on that one…” Asahina mumbled almost inaudibly

“Hello and good evening everyone, you’ve all had quite the night haven’t you?” 

“You’re looking cheerful as ever.” Kyoko said dryly as she occasionally shot glances through the window of the nurses office to keep an eye on Byakuya. It wouldn’t do them any good for him to die right now. 

“How can I not be when things are so delightfully interesting right now phuhuhuhu!” 

That laugh was always enough to send him twitching with irritation. “Drop the act Monokuma and just answer the question. Will you punish him because he’s asleep outside of the dorm room?”

“I did think about that and for a while I was gonna say yes just to see all the despair on your faces, but then I decided against it because this game is supposed to be fair and it wouldn’t be fair to punish someone for passing out from blood loss in the middle of the hallway so I’ll let it go just this once. You better get him back up in his room before going back to bed though!” He crossed his arms and his red eye seemed to shine when he said that, it sent a chill down Makoto’s spine.

“Are ya holdin’ a class trial for this even though he didn’t die?” Hagakure looked at him accusingly

“Well you see, that’s the trouble with this situation, isn’t it? Byakuya isn’t dead yet but he’s pretty bad off and I don’t doubt you all want to look into things to find out who’s the would be murderer. “ Monokuma walked around the group with a grin. “So I decided I’d change the rules a bit for it. We will hold an investigation and trial for the matter but the ending will be different. If you vote the correct assailant, nothing will happen. If you vote incorrectly nothing happens either, assuming he pulls through.”

“Assuming? What does that mean?” Makoto looked at him with an unnerved expression

“Well, if he ends up dying from his injuries, from one reason or another, and you guys voted incorrectly then you're all punished and the killer goes free. If you voted correctly they are punished instead.” He giggled maniacally at the sound of loud gasps filling the hall. Was he serious?!

“You can’t be serious…” Sakura said angrily “You expect us to go through with this even though he isn’t even dead?”

“I do, so you better get to work because I won’t leave the library looking like that for very long.” Makoto shivered at the thought of what state it was in. 

“It’s nighttime so I won’t push for a trial until tomorrow at a time to be determined. Do you best to keep the boy alive or one of you might end up executed. But don’t think because there's no immediate threat not to take it seriously or I just punish you all anyway. Better get to work phuhuhu!” And with that he was gone to leave the entire group in stunned silence. 

“This is..seriously messed up dude…” Hagakure was the first person to speak up

“Anyway, who are we setting to watch master while he recovers?!” Jill had a distinct blush covering her face that made Makoto very uncomfortable. How the hell did Byakuya deal with this everyday?

“Certainly not you! Your the main suspect right now.” Asahina yelled, clearly fed up with how she was acting at this point. 

“Jokes on you sweetheart, If I had done this, he wouldn’t have walked away alive afterwards.” She giggled in a way that made Makoto cringe, mostly because he knew it to be true and the idea of Byakuya being killed by her made his stomach turn. Honestly, this entire situation did. 

“I was thinking Sakura and Asahina for now. Their close friends so we know that they will get along and Sakura has been trying to look for a way to prove she’s on our side. Plus she’s big enough to stop anybody from hurting Byakuya so she makes for the perfect body guard.” Kyoko looked up at the muscular girl who simply nodded in understanding. Clearly she was fine with it. 

Asahina gave a half shrug. “After the way he acted today I don’t really want to but Sakura is ok with it and I’m glad you guys are trying to put trust in her so I guess I’m fine with it as long as she is.” 

“Then it’s settled. Sakura please take Byakuya to his room and lay him down carefully. I found his room key in his pocket while I was trying to take off the bloodied shirt and blazer so you shouldn’t have any problem getting in.” 

“Don’t worry Kyoko, I’ll make sure no more harm befalls him tonight.” Sakura said with a look of determination in her eye as she went to go get him with Asahina following close behind her, albeit apprehensively. 

“God I wish they didn’t do this so late, I’m exhausted. But if we wait too long to do this investigation till tomorrow Monokuma will probably have had all the evidence cleaned up just to spite us.” Makoto sighed and rubbed his one eye. 

“I think for now we will have to make the rule to stay in our rooms after night time even more heavily enforced. Makoto I want you to come with me. Hagakure and Jill you two please return to your rooms for the night.” Kyoko looked at them both with a dark stare, it definitely wasn’t a suggestion or request. 

“Whatever..i’m wiped anyways. Good luck you two, come on nutcase.” Hagakure started walking toward the staircase and Jill begrudgingly followed behind him. Makoto couldn’t say why but he guessed it was probably more out of fear of what Kyoko might do than it was actually wanting to go to bed. 

“Well, let’s get going then. Monokuma said this was still technically an official investigation so we better get going to the Library now.” Kyoko removed the gloves covering her hands and threw them in the trash beside the door, slipping her normal pair on before turning around and making a beeline for the library. 

Makoto was dead silent, eyes wide in momentary shock until he remembered who it was he was talking to. Honestly, hearing that come out of her mouth shouldn’t have really shocked him but for some reason it did. Blame it on the lack of sleep. 

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

Makoto had done his best to prepare himself for the scene they were about to enter, but honestly nothing could have prepared him for this. Somehow even without a dead body there it shook him to his very core and left him totally speechless. Kyoko stood there with her usual cold and calculating glance, but he could tell that even she was surprised. Why?

Well mostly because at first glance everything looks fine. But then when you start walking you notice a small trail of blood that gets progressively worse until they approach the desk that you could normally find Byakuya sitting at when he came in here to read. There was a large puddle of blood in the dead center of the scene and around it you could see more evidence of a struggle. There was a bookcase with a bloodstain across the one edge and a chair that had been knocked on its side with a bloody hand print on it, and lying by itself almost inconspicuously was Byakuya’s glasses, snapped in half and shattered in one lens. Definitely broken beyond repair and Makoto had to hope for his sake that he had a spare. 

“Wow..you really have to wonder how he managed to not black out lying here with the amount of blood on the ground. He probably *should* have died.” Makoto mumbled as he walked closer to Kyoko, fully taking in the scene around them. It was at that moment he started to regret not walking in to check on the boy in question. Some boyfriend he was being...whatever now wasn’t the time to be worried. 

“He always has had an irritating amount of persistence if the argument in the gym before nighttime was any indication and I don’t doubt that it’s even more apparent when he’s on the brink of death. He became the Ultimate Affluent Prodigy for a reason right?” She stepped around the puddle carefully and picked up the broken glasses to get a look at. “I don’t doubt he was wearing these when he was whacked in the head.”

“Maybe they broke from the impact and he fell because he couldn’t see well?” Makoto suggested

“I don’t think so. Do you see that bloodstain on the edge right here?” She reached out to point at a nearby bookcase which did, in fact, have a bloodstain right on the edge of it. “Between that and the fact that his glasses broke down the center, I think he was actually pushed. I think someone came in here, shoved him from behind, and then stabbed him after he was defenseless.” 

“But why go out of the way to shove him if they had a knife on hand? If they were already standing behind him and were close enough to push him couldn’t they have just stabbed him through the back? The only reason I can think of is if they were afraid he’d fight back.”

“Think about it Makoto, he’s not particularly strong but for someone our age pretty tall. It wouldn’t be hard to fight back against someone if they were a decently shorter than him” Kyoko brought her hand to her chin thoughtfully.

“So I guess that rules out Sakura and Hagakure because they are both stronger than him and would have no reason to want to incapacitate him before landing the killing blow.” Makoto noted with relative confidence. 

“Don’t bet on that, for all we know the person responsible could have done everything in this manner to make us think that. And If he did hit his head as hard as that wound would suggest, chances are he probably won’t know, so we shouldn’t rely on him entirely.” 

“Was it really that bad?” He asked, voice laced with concern

She frowned, nodded, and without another word pushed past him to take another look at the desk chair. It was knocked over on its side but the more interesting part was what looked to be a blood stain on one of the legs. Despite the amount of the ground it still looked really out of place to her. She pulled out the journal that she carried around and started to write down everything she observed before looking at the clock at the corner of the room. 

“It’s already almost 1am. I don’t think there is much more here for us to see so I think we should go to get some sleep for the night and pick this investigation up tomorrow after checking to see if he’s woken up.” Makoto suggested, looking significantly more worn out than the lavender haired girl crouched in front of him.

“I think your right. I don’t think there’s anything else here so it would probably be best to get some sleep. “ She stood up and brushed her skirt off before turning to look at Makoto. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow morning Makoto.”

“Yeah, good night Kiri.” He smiled at her before turning around and leaving for the dorms, unsettled by the trail of blood he could see as he walked back to his room and in his head all he could think about is how much he hoped that Byakuya was going to be ok.


	4. Chapter 4

That night Makoto didn’t get much sleep at all, the amount of questions piling up in his head combined by the knowledge that the person he cared the most about in the building almost died made him nearly sick with anxiety. How was he meant to sleep when he was so worried?

He decided at that moment he wouldn’t just lay there, after all he of anybody should have the right to go see him right? He got out of bed, stumbling over his shoes in the process because the lights were out and with the windows covered it was basically pitch black in the room. He grabbed his key off the bedside table and felt his way over to the door before opening it and carefully popping his head out to look around. 

The hallway was empty, something he figured he probably should have expected given the fact that it was nearly 2am. The whole day had been so crazy that at this point he wouldn’t have been surprised by anything. He walked out and carefully closed the door behind him. He knew Kyoko left her door open at night to watch for Alter Ego and there was a part of him that might have been really embarrassed if someone noticed him awake right now. 

He sighed walking over to Byakuya’s door and dreaded opening it. As worried as he was about the boy he was also terrified to know what he looked like. The way Kyoko described his injuries left a knot in the pit of his stomach and he wasn’t entirely sure if he was ready to see it for himself. Nonetheless he gathered his courage and knocked on the door quietly, hoping that the two girls in his room would hear it. How bad could it be right?

After a few seconds he saw the door open a crack and he looked up to see Sakura’s eyes peering down at him. “Makoto, what are you doing awake at this hour?” She sounded more worried for his well-being than anything else. Seeing the way she was acting it really was hard to believe she was the traitor in the group. 

“Well I just...couldn’t sleep because I was worried about him...Would you let me in to check on him? I understand Kyoko told you not to let anybody in unless under strict supervision but I just can’t stand not knowing.” His eyes dropped to the ground, preparing himself for her to tell him no. 

“I probably shouldn’t be doing this because of how shaky everyone’s trust in me is already, but if it had been Hina who was attacked I’d probably want to see how she was too so I will let you in. But only for a little while.” 

“I-...thank you..”

Sakura moved to the side and opened the door wide enough to let Makoto inside and then closed it again. He could hear the slight click of the door's lock. 

It was pretty dark in the room, as Makoto kind of expected, but there was a small candle on the table in the center of Byakuya’s room. “Hina found it in the storage room. I’m guessing they're probably here in case of power outages. We just took a few up to put in here so we could see him. Just in case.” Sakura explained, going to sit back down in a chair. 

Makoto turned to look at the bed and he instantly felt his heart drop to his stomach. Apparently the answer to his question was pretty bad. Byakuya was lying there stiff as a board. He had a blanket covering his legs and most of his torso but it stopped around the middle of his chest which gave Makoto a good view of the bandages wrapped around his shoulder. Kyoko didn’t say anything about a shoulder injury so he guessed it was probably just meant to keep everything in place. His hair was completely disheveled and it was almost too dark to see the massive bruise that had formed around his temple and forehead, almost. 

Makoto took a sharp inhale and walked to kneel beside his bed. Fortunately the beds were pretty low to the ground so when he did he could still comfortably reach up to put a hand on Byakuya’s cheek. He honestly wasn’t expecting much when he walked in, just a few minutes to see him to ensure that he was indeed alive and breathing, so it kind of took him by surprise when Byakuya moved his head into Makoto’s hand to where he was essentially cupping it as his eyes fluttered open. And honestly that was almost enough to make Makoto tear up with relief.

“Hey…” Makoto whispered quietly, “It’s Makoto..” Between the poor lighting and the fact that he didn’t have his glasses he wasn’t entirely sure whether or not Byakuya could see him. 

“I know..I recognize your touch..” His voice sounded tired and weak and it broke Makoto’s heart to listen to. He would find out who left Byakuya like this if it killed him, and honestly considering the nature of the game, it just might. 

“I didn’t mean to wake you up I just...Well I couldn’t sleep because I was worried about you. I didn’t get the chance to check on you before Kyoko pulled me away to look at the library.” Makoto frowned at the memory but he couldn’t exactly blame her, they were sort of in a rush to get things done at that point and it was pretty late. 

“I’d rather you woke me up than sat up all night anxious because you chose to let me sleep instead.” 

“Still…” Makoto honestly felt really guilty about this whole situation. After Byakuya stormed out of the gym Makoto thought to leave him alone for a little bit. Let him cool off? But if he had just followed him there and tried to talk to him about the situation and get him to go to his dorm then he would have been safe. This never would have happened…

“Hey..” Byakuya looked at him with a frown “I can tell what your thinking and I don’t like it. Nothing about this situation is your fault and I don’t want to see you go and blame yourself.” 

Makoto sighed and nodded as he continues to stroke his face as if it was meant to soothe him. It was probably made him feel better more than it did Byakuya but that wasn't important. “I know...I’m just worried. But I’m sure everything is going to work out.” 

“You need to go to bed. It’s late and I can tell you haven’t slept. I’ll still be here when you wake up tomorrow.” 

Makoto thought about it for a minute. He didn’t want to leave him alone like this and a moment later remembered...he wasn’t leaving him alone. He looked up from Byakuya at the two chairs against the wall to see Sakura sitting there with Asahina sleeping with her head leaning against her arm.

“Ok...I’m sure Kyoko will probably want to talk to you about what happened so I’ll see you in the morning ok?” He leaned over to lay a gentle kiss on Byakuya’s forehead, where there wasn’t a bruise, and stood up. Byakuya’s eyes were starting to close too and Makoto decided it was time to leave. He moved his hand away carefully and gave him one last look. "Sleep well.." 

“Ready?” She asked quietly

“Yeah..Thank you again.”

She nodded and stood up to lead Makoto out and watched the door close and lock behind him and again he was standing in the hallway alone. He sighed and tried to shake away all the questions flooding in his head as he walked into his room and locked the door before crawling back into bed. 

He wasn’t sure whether it was the fact that it was later now or that he felt better that he spoke to Byakuya but he was finally able to fall asleep. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto and Kyoko try to beat the clock and finish their investigation before the trial starts, but will they have enough time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far I'm loving how this story is coming out, and I have absolutely no intention to change its outcome, but I also am pretty sure I'm gonna make some of you mad with it.

Monokuma’s morning announcement was enough to send Makoto into a small panic when it woke him up, and somehow his laughter over the speaker was even more graining to listen to than usual. 

“Good morning everyone! It is now 7am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine!”

Makoto frowned and basically threw himself out of bed. The fact that he hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep clearly taking its toll when he looked at himself in the mirror and his eyes were practically bloodshot. He rubbed this and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower, just throwing on some clean clothes before going to meet Kyoko. 

Turns out he didn’t need to go very far at all because he left his room to see Kyoko leaning against the wall writing something in her journal. Figures.

“Hey Kyoko!” He said something to get her attention and she looked up from her book to give him a momentarily blank facial expression.

“Good Morning Makoto, did you sleep well?” She asked before going back to finish writing. 

“Honestly, no not really. I’ve been pretty stressed out.. Did you go to speak to Byakuya yet or did you wait for me?” 

“There’s been a change of plans. We aren’t going to ask him what he remembers until the trial because if we do it now there won’t be any time to investigate the rest of the building. “ 

“But we’ve already checked the Library. What else is there to look at?” He looked at her confused. 

“Think about it Makoto. If you consider the state of the library when we walked in there, what would the killer have to do afterwards?” 

He was quiet for a second and then the realization dawned on him, “Do you mean the blood? They would have gotten blood on their clothes too.” 

“Exactly. So we’re going to the laundry room and then we are going to take a walk to the garbage room to check the incinerator. You don’t need to worry about him because I did check on him and gave Asahina some medicine to give him before the trial starts to he can actually move. “ Kyoko started walking towards the laundry room quickly, Monokuma had never said anything about when the trial would be, just that it would be today and she was worried that they might not be able to investigate everything before it started.

“Who’s supposed to be on garbage duty?” Makoto asked trying to not think about what she just said because honestly the thought that he was that bad off made him more worried than he was to begin with.

“Sakura. But I already had her make sure the gate was unlocked because I made her aware I wanted to check it out so we won’t need to worry about that.” 

He nodded and sighed as they walked to the laundry room. He was really hoping that they would find something in there that could suggest who the killer was but they were really working against the clock at this point and he honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Monokuma was watching them and called the trial before they could finish everything just out of spite. 

Makoto and Kyoko made it to the laundry room in record time, probably half because they were worried about time and the other half because they didn’t want anybody to take something out of one of the machines that could incriminate them. They opened the door and were glad to see nobody else was there. “OK Makoto, we don’t have much time so you check the washers and I’ll check the dryers.” 

He nodded and ran to the other side of the room, which was lined with washing machines. Starting from the left and working over, he opened each and every one of the machines. He ended up having to pull a stool over to reach the top shelf but was disappointed to find that it was all for nothing. They were all completely empty but the last one on the far right still had water droplets on the door. “Hey Kiri.. This doesn’t have any actual clothing inside of it but it still has water. Does that mean it’s been used recently?”

“I wouldn’t imagine it takes very long for these to dry so probably.” Kyoko reaches a dryer which had a red sleeve sticking out of it and cocks one eyebrow. “Jackpot.” She kneels down and opens the door, it was kind of difficult because the sleeve had gotten it stuck but after a minute of pulling the door opened and what she saw made her smirk.

“It looks like my instincts were dead on.” She pulls the sweater out, still warm. 

“Wait...is that...Hina’s jacket?” Makoto said 

“Looks like it. Even still has a hole in it the sleeve from Jill’s earlier attack.”

“Maybe she put in there to wash the blood off from where she bled from her arm?!” He was trying to rationalize it in his head, there was no way that Asahina was responsible for this right?

“It’s possible, but this bloodstain on the left pocket leaves room for doubt. She wasn’t bleeding too bad from that wound, you dressed it yourself so you would know.”

He frowned and nodded “Yeah..all things considered she really lucked out. It was just a little slash across her arm but it wasn’t deep enough to even need stitches.” 

“That’s what I thought.” She said before shoving it into the bag she was carrying with her. “Better hurry and get to the garbage room, the trial will start soon and it's at the end of the hall, so we should be able to make it.” 

He nodded and started for the door, now wasn’t the time to worry about that. They needed to get to that room before the trial started and they probably didn’t have much time left so they hurried down the hall to the garbage room. Like Kyoko had said, the door was unlocked and so was the gate so that the pair could actually walk over and look in the incinerator. Kyoko walked over and opened the doors to it carefully before peaking in.

She reached in with her hand and started digging through the ash in it. “Isn’t that kind of dangerous? You could burn yourself if the ash is still really hot.” Makoto said, concerned. 

“You don’t need to worry about that, these gloves are heat resistant.” 

“Oh..well good.” He looked around the room but he didn’t see anything in particular that could have been evidence. At least the first time he was here there was the broken glass ball.

She pulled out a scrap of white cloth that still had blood on it. “Well..it’s not much because basically everyone here owns a white shirt but it’s something at least.” 

Almost on queue, Monokuma’s voice started to ring out through the speakers. “Alright kiddos, listen. I’m getting pretty bored of sitting here and you’ve all had more than enough time to investigate this case so come on and lets get this show on the road already, and yes I do mean all of you.” He was obviously referring to Byakuya directly by that. 

“I still can’t believe he’s really going to force him to come even though he’s so bad.” Makoto frowned 

“I can.. Let’s go get to the elevator then.” Kyoko said, standing up and closing the doors to the incinerator. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its finally trial time

Makoto nodded and started walking to the door, holding it open for her as she walked out. Together, they walked to the red doors that led to the elevator and were greeted by all of their classmates. 

“Sorry to keep you all waiting, we were checking out something on the other side of the floor.” Kyoko explained 

Makoto looked over to see Byakuya leaning against the wall looking utterly miserable. 

“I gave him the medicine you gave me Kyoko but i’m not sure it’s helping.” Asahina said with a frown

“It’s working fine, i’m just tired.” Byakuya said with a grimace. Most of the room seemed to buy it but Makoto could tell he was lying. They all started to fill up the elevator and after maybe a minute or two of waiting Monokuma walked in and the elevator was going down.

Every time they were in this elevator it seemed like the creaking of the metal got louder and shaking just a little bit more intense. Makoto was worried that they might not figure out who it was, considering he didn’t really have any theories. Well...maybe there was the one.. He frowned and looked over at Asahina, who was leaning next to Sakura looking grim as ever. 

No, no, he refused to believe she would do something like this. She was the one that always wanted to keep everyone safe and brought some joy to the group. There was no way she was capable of hurting someone like that. He shot a glance over in Byakuya’s direction and he decided he really needed to stop doing that because everytime he did his heart would drop.

He figured one of the girls helped him get dressed because he was wearing a shirt and he was glad to see that he also apparently had a spare pair of glasses. Still, he definitely didn’t look like how he usually did. Makoto walked over to him right as the elevator stopped and the doors opened to reveal the trial room. Everyone started walking out to go to their spot but Byakuya stood there for a second like he was trying to find the motivation and strength to actually move.

“Here..You can lean on me and I’ll help you walk over, ok?” Makoto said

He seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding and Makoto took Byakuya’s arm to wrap around his shoulder before they walked over to his spot.

“Are you sure about this dude? You look paler than usual...which is saying something.” Hagakure said with a tilt of his head

“Byakuya, you’re looking considerably less formal than usual.” Monokuma said with a tone of amusement. Just like always. 

“I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with.” Byakuya said with a scowl as he gripped onto the sides of the podium to lean on his good side.

“I agree, we need to get through this. So what should we discuss first?” Asahina asked, trying to get the conversation started.

“We can start by asking him what he remembers, unlike past trials the victim is still alive so we can ask to see what he can tell us and go off of that.” Kyoko looked over at him expectantly.

"That was an unnecessarily roundabout way of telling me you wanted to know." Byakuya said amused

"Can you tell us what happened though?" Makoto asked him

He nodded "Might as well. Basically after our little argument in the gym yesterday I walked to the Library to get some peace and quiet. I was reading when I heard someone open the door and at first I stayed quiet because I expected it to be Makoto looking for me and when I didn't hear him saying anything I got really confused. I didn't do anything but then I heard what sounded like a book being dropped and I went to Investigate the source. So I stood up and looked over and then someone shoved me from behind and I hit my head off of the bookshelf next to me. "

"That explains h-how your glasses b-broke in half like that.." Toko mumbled with a frown.

"So when you were on the ground they stabbed you then right? But what I don't understand why they stopped with just the one even though where it wouldn't be fatal." Makoto scratched the back of his head.

"Well after I was on the ground I knew I wouldn't be able to get them off of me because they were sitting on my lower back and couldn't really squirm around. So I did the exact opposite."

"You just laid there and let it happen!" Hagakure asked with wide eyes 

He nodded "Yes. They stabbed me once and afterwards I went as still as I could. Either they were dumb enough to not see through it or they wanted me to bleed out like that so they just left the blade in my side and got up and ran away. "

"Did you see who it was?" Kyoko asked with crossed arms

"I didn't. My vision is honestly pretty bad without my glasses on and the impact of the fall certainly didn’t help." He frowned in irritation because if he had seen who it was this would be over by now. "But just because I couldn't make out their face doesn't mean I didn't see their general figure. And it was too small to be Hagakure or Sakura so it's probably one of the girls." 

"Bold to assume Makoto isn't a suspect just because he's your friend." Asahina said with an underlying tone of anger.

“He’s not *just* my friend.” He corrected sounding amused with her argument

“I wouldn’t hurt any of you, especially not him. I can’t believe you’d even suggest something like that.” Makoto responded with a tone of indignation. 

“I’m just saying until you have evidence to prove that we shouldn’t just write you off because you two are...whatever you two are…” 

“You guys are missing the point.” Kyoko butted in to try to stop the argument “What’s important about that observation is that he’s sure that it isn’t Sakura or Hiro so I think we can safely rule them out until we are given a reason not to. “

Hagakure sighed in relief “Thanks Dude...i’m glad you don’t think it was one of us.”

“It wouldn’t make sense for it to be you two anyway.” Kyoko noted “Byakuya you said you were shoved into the bookcase before you were stabbed right?”

“Yes?” He asked with mild confusion

“Oh!” Toko yelled when the realization hit here “Wh-why would they s-shove master if t-they were so much bigger than him like those tw-two are.”

“Exactly. Those two could easily overpower him with pure strength and being so much taller so it would stand to reason that whoever shoved him was likely shorter than him.” She said with her arms crossed

“Wait. But how do we even know what Byakuya remembers is actually what happened? He said he hit his head after all. He could be forgetting something really important.” 

“You mean besides the person’s face right?” Makoto said while crossing his arms.

“I didn’t forget anything. I never blacked out until I reached the dorms so the likelihood that i forgot anything is really low.”

“As well as that, everything that we found in the library led me to a conclusion similar to the story he’s telling us, so I don’t think anything he said has been fabricated.” Kyoko said definitely.

Makoto thought that whole interaction was not only pointless but also weird. What reason would Asahina have to suspect he was lying? Basically the entire time they had been in that school Byakuya has always been honest about what he thought, maybe a little bit too much sometimes.

“I just...thought it was something to consider. You know?” She said with a sigh. Byakuya looked at her with a glare but considering his eyes were beginning to droop a little, it wasn’t overly intimidating. 

“We are getting side tracked. Now that we have an idea of what happened to you we can make a timeline events leading up from when you were attached to the next morning. Do you know how long it took you to get out of the library and to my room?” 

“Uh..” Byakuya’s eyebrows furrowed for a second as he tried to remember “I think it took about 15 minutes between having to find a way to pull myself up and a minute or two I took to look my glasses..yeah. 15 minutes seems about right.” 

“And you knocked on my door at roughly 11:30pm, which means it happened at around 11:15pm.”

“Why is knowing the time of that important though?” Sakura asked 

“Well because of what I found in the garbage room. We found out during the first trial that there is a way to turn the incinerator on whenever you want by use of a button, but we also know that every night at 12am it starts automatically so that whatever is in there will be gone in the morning when we take the trash down.” 

“What did you find?” Byakuya asked her 

She smirked and reached into her pocket to pull out the piece of white cloth with blood on it and held it up for everyone to see. “Note the fact that this cloth looks and feels more like it came from a t-shirt than a button up.”

“You can’t be sure though.” Asahina crossed her arms. “I mean..it could just be a part of the shirt that no buttons are on, like the back or something.”

“T-that's true..” Toko said with unease 

“Button up shirts have a very distinct material used for them that is meant to be so that they don’t wrinkle as much as a regular cotton t-shirt would. You can tell just by touching it that it couldn’t be.” 

“Still it doesn’t exactly clue us in as to who it belongs to.” Makoto sighed, “What are we back to square one now?” 

“Not exactly. The time was also important to note for another reason. Makoto do you remember what we found in the laundry room?”

“Asahina’s coat..” He frowned and looked over at the girl in question. Asahina didn’t say anything in response, only crossed her arms. 

“Exactly and the washing machine that still had water droplets in it which suggests that it was recently used.”

“What’s your point?” She glared at Kyoko “I got cut up by this psycho yesterday!” She gestured towards Toko who gave a confused expression. Apparently she didn’t remember that. ”There was blood on the sleeve. I just wanted to wash it off. Is that suddenly a bad thing?”

“Not by itself, but I don’t think that’s the blood you were washing off.” 

“I-If that was the reason why didn’t-t you wash it sooner?” 

“Are you saying you think I did this?!” She gave a look of disbelief

“She would never!” Sakura crossed her arms 

“Why would you think- I haven’t ever done anything to make you think I would want to hurt him.” 

Makoto’s eyebrows furrowed at that. Surely she couldn’t be serious. Did she just forget about what happened the night before? “That’s not true.” 

“Excuse me?” She turned to look at him with a glare

“Yesterday at the gym when you guys were arguing… You slapped him in the face and threatened to kill him yourself because he said he wouldn’t care if Sakura died.” makoto said with a sigh. 

“Asahina what-.... Where did you go after leaving the gym last night?” Byakuya asked her, sounding a bit shaky. Makoto looked over to look at him and noticed that he was gripping the side of the podum really hard and was now staring at the ground. It looked like he was really concentrating on something. 

“I went with Sakura to the pool. We hung out there for a little bit because she said that it would help me calm down, and then we went to bed.”

“That is right. We were together all night until she went to sleep, so there’s no way she was the one that attacked Byakuya. The evidence you have is all purely circumstantial she-” Sakura said with her arms crossed

“What time did you guys go to sleep last night?” Kyoko interrupted her

“What time? I’m not sure...it was at least an hour so probably around 11…” 

“I rest my case.”

“This is ridiculous!” Asahina said “So I attacked the guy? That’s what your saying? Do you all just not remember me leaving my room when Kyoko woke us up? How could I have cleaned up myself, disposed of the evidence, and made it back to the room before Byakuya in the span of 15 minutes? It’s not possible!”

“Wrong.” Kyoko responded “Because the water gets shut off you wouldn’t be able to shower so instead you would have had to wipe off any blood with a towel and changed your clothes. As long as everything was out of sight before I knocked on your door, you absolutely would have been able to do it. After all, your jacket wasn’t washed until this morning.” 

"well if your so confident it was me then how about you tell me exactly what you think happened." She crossed her arms with a scowl

Kyoko looked over at Makoto, who nodded. "If you want to know what we think happened then let's start from the beginning. When Byakuya left the gym last night. After he was gone you and Sakura went to the pool because she wanted you to calm down and swimming almost always does that for you, and maybe for a while it did. But what she didn't know was that while you were swimming you were also thinking up a plan. A plan that you would use to try to kill Byakuya in a way that even if you failed, he'd never know it was you. When you guys left the pool, you went into your room and waited a little bit to make Sakura think you were asleep and then snuck out of your room. You knew Byakuya would still be in the library because he always goes to bed later than the rest of us, and he always spends his time there at night reading. So you stole a knife, most likely from the kitchen, and snuck into the library. Byakuya noticed that the door opened but you planned for that and so you threw a book in the direction opposite of where you were coming from to get him to turn around, and when his back was to you, you came up behind him and shoved him, causing him to fall and smack his head off the corner of a bookcase. You had to do this because of the height difference between you two, you have a lot of upper body strength but he's at least 8 inches taller than you and would have probably fought back otherwise. After that you sat on his back to make sure he'd be unable to move away and stabbed him in the stomach, and when he went completely still you thought you killed him. So you got up and ran away, leaving him there, and went back up to your room. Because it was nighttime you couldn't have taken a shower so you wipped the blood off using your already ruined jacket and changed clothes so that when someone came to get you, you would look normal. That's why you didn't wash your jacket till this morning, because you couldn't. Aoi Asahina, you are the person that tried to kill Byakuya!'

The room fell dead silent, and now all eyes were on Asahina. “Oh come on...you guys don’t actually think??” She tried to plead her case but at this point it was looking pretty bad.

“Unless you have evidence that proves it isn’t you well…” Makoto said, She was quiet for a moment and then shook her head.

“So is that a confession?” Byakuya said with a tone of aggression, but he didn’t care at that point if it sounded harsh. He of anyone should have the right to be irritated at the moment. 

“Yes…” She muttered quietly and looked down at the ground.

“Alright everyone! You’ve spoken long enough and it seems as if you have made your decision so it’s voting time!” Monokuma yelled out “You all know the deal by now. Pick the person you think is responsible with that little pad of yours. If you vote for the right person or not isn’t necessarily of any importance NOW, buuuuut he’s looking pretty pale over there so I’d still choose wisely.”

Byakuya didn’t even care enough at this point to make a rebuttal because honestly...he was feeling pretty awful and if this trial didn’t end soon he was afraid he might pass out again from the exertion of having to hold himself up this long with pretty much exclusively upper body strength. 

Everyone stepped forward to look down at the pad and one by one casted their vote. They looked up to watch the wheel spin until it fell on Asahina’s face, guilty.

“Correct! The attempted murderer here is no other than Aoi Asahina!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trial is over and the group has to deal with the ramification of it. Byakuya learns an important lesson.

The room was dead silent, a heavy feeling of dread falling as all eye’s went to Asahina, who was staring at the ground. It wasn’t so much that she looked remorseful..maybe just upset to have been caught. 

“Hina...this has to be a lie. There’s no way-” Sakura tried to say before she was cut off.

“No, It’s not a lie. It was me. I tried to kill Byakuya, and it happened pretty much as Makoto said. “ 

Byakuya stared at her with equal parts bewilderment and blind rage. If he wasn’t so damn tired right now he’d have half a mind to strangle the girl where she stood. “Why! What the hell got into you?!”

“Because I don’t trust you! You’ve never been shy to admit that you would be willing to kill all of us if it meant getting out of here, and i’m sure after what we found out yesterday that those thoughts are even more prominent than before.” 

“The gym, you mean. “ Byakuya glared at her “Oh you mean right after we found out that your ‘best friend’ was a traitor, right?” 

“Jesus would you stop it with that already! She wasn’t going to hurt any of you and you...you said that she should risk her life and if she died it would be for the better!” 

“And my stance hasn’t changed regardless of the circumstances.” He said before rubbing the side of his face. His words may have had a lot of bite to them but he honestly looked ready to pass out so it didn’t have the amount of kick he would have liked.

“Because all you think about is yourself. You don’t care about any of us, not even Makoto. You're probably just using him too.” 

“Now Hina-” Makoto tried to step in

“I won’t deny the fact that I honestly couldn’t care less about the rest of you. And I am many things, but I’m not a liar. But even if I was, you justification for trying to off me if because you were convinced I’d go after your friend? Exactly what kind of moron do you take me for?”

“I really don’t think that’s a question you want the answer too..” Hagakure muttered quietly.

“She better be grateful master isn’t dead. Because if he was I’d make sure to kill her where she stood.” Toko said bitterly  
“I’m shaking in my boots.” Asahina said sarcastically

“Honestly you probably should be..” Kyoko said

“Whatever. So if that’s the end of this trial I’m leaving.” Asahina said, starting to step off her spot.

“Not so fast. There is going to be a punishment that you don’t want to miss.” Monokuma stopped her.

“But- You said if he lived you wouldn’t kill her!” Sakura yelled

“Oh it’s not her who’s punished.. I’m a bear of my word. No, we have a special guest for this trial. So let’s give it everything we’ve got, it’s Punishment Time!”

**

The next few minutes were truly a blur, but what mattered was Alter Ego was gone. Somehow, the mastermind must have found him in the database, and now he was reduced to nothing more than a ball of metal, crushed under a thousand punches. It was like losing Chihiro for the second time, he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. 

As the group walked back to the dining hall, the conversation Byakuya had with Kyoko in the gym before all of this kept playing over in his head. Maybe at the time he hadn’t really cared much about what she had to say, but perhaps if he had taken her advice a bit more seriously, maybe this whole situation could have been avoided. 

_ “Togami, I take it you don’t place much value in human emotion.” _

_ “You would be correct in that assumption.” _

_ “I’m warning you, They do carry weight. And you disregard them at your own peril.” _

This trial had been a learning experience for everyone, but mostly for Byakuya. It was a lesson to take how other people felt a bit more seriously before speaking or perhaps, a lesson in tact. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the story has finally reached it's end my friends. I Wanted to have it done before November ended but I got caught up with projects and tests the last week of school before Thanksgiving and was too busy to write this out so December 2nd will have to do. I really hope you guys enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it, because this is actually the first full story I have completed and I'm super proud of how it came out. 
> 
> Kudos and Comments are always appreciated and I have a ton of fun reading what you say, but if you don't feel like it don't feel pressured to do so. Thank you all so much for the support and for coming on this journey with me, I really hope you feel it was worth it.


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